where the two cultures meet

Arctic Peaks

The bare rock outcrops and snow-fields of north-west Greenland are home territory to the Inuit people, photographed here by Mariele Neudecker during a dog-sled hunting expedition.

Neudecker’s installation at last month’s Brighton Festival reconstructs these peaks in a more familiar home environment, photographed by M Habes; it is comparable also to David Whiteman’s Arctic landscape.

In contrast the Inuits have their own artistic traditions in that region, such as this 20cm high image of Pootoogook, Johnny Soapstone “Inukshuk” at pathgallery.com

My own work on fossil pollen and spores has shown details of how the Greenland peaks were formed by volcanic activity 55 million years ago, extensive then in the red areas of Fred Ziegler’s geological map. The fossils came from vegetation growing between the eruptions, showing there were more than 25 explosive episodes lasting in all a couple of million years. They formed lava flows extending from Scotland and Northern Ireland to the Faroes as well as Greenland.